Colleen - I noticed the same thing about the lack of focus on "formative" assessments. At first, I thought that "Types of Informal Assessments" on pg. 161 was going to cover it, but it really didn't say much.
Since this seems to be a very timely topic in our State - with quite a push in my school as well, I am wondering if maybe this focus is so "new" that this book is already behind-the-times in not giving a big long list of formative assessments.
Since this is a large segment on the evaluation for us, our school is realizing we all need more guidance and some training on how to effectively use formative assessments. We all have nice, long lists of the various types of formative assessments, but it would be good to actually have a bit of support with how to use them; which ones are really effective; and which ones are not helpful.
I'm with you, Colleen! We need a bit more info. on that topic.
Colleen, I agree with your concerns about PARCC. I wonder how I can prepare my students for an assessment that I do not know much about. Our curriculum is based on the Common Core Standards, but as teachers we have had many discussions about the standards and our interpretation of them. What if my interpretation and expectations for my students does not align with the test? I have used some of the examples from the PARCC website and have also used some of the items from Smarter Balance Consortium (the other company creating state tests based on the Common Core). My students have struggled with these test items. Later this spring I will be giving the field test to my students and I am hoping to gain a better understanding of what the assessment will be like. The text talks about integrating test strategies/questions into our teaching. I do teach test taking strategies, but without a true understanding of what these tests will look like it is hard to create sample problems. I am very concerned about what happens when we give these assessments to the students. If they are not as successful as they were on NECAP is it because they are not capable, because we have not instructed them properly, or because neither teachers nor students are truly prepared for this type of testing format? What impact will that have on the students and their own perceptions of their abilities? The suggestions in the text of how to help are students be successful make sense, but unfortunately are not truly feasible in our current state of testing. We don’t know what to expect, so how can we truly prepare our students for success?
I am finding myself getting frustrated with the talk of the new PARCC test. We are trying to decide whether or not to take it next year (We are a private school and have that option.) However, even though we have worked hard to align our curriculum to the Common Core, I am not sure if I have prepared my students adequately for the type of test questions. As I said previously, we spent time aligning our curriculum, but after teaching a module from EngageNY (http://www.engageny.org/) I see that I did not have a clear enough understanding of the type of thinking required. I don't think you should teach to the test, but you do need to know what the test is like in order to help student prepare for answering questions in the proper format. In this chapter, the authors stated, "High achieving schools focus on curriculum improvement rather than test prep". Thus I suppose I will continue to better understand the Common Core standards in order to improve my daily instruction. My gut feeling is that we should take the test and analyze the results to determine if we do have any gaps.(This assumes that PARCC is a valid test!)
PARCC is definitely going to be a big change, and something that my school has already been stressed about. The book talks about informal assessments, and using observations, portfolios, rubrics, and inventories to see how the students are doing. In my opinion, these observations will not be helpful if you do not have a deep understanding of the end goal for the curriculum. Aligning to Common Core is one thing, but it is important to know the depth that each student will need to have on the standards. Backwards planning, as briefly described in this blog, http://www.edutopia.org/blog/backwards-planning-thinking-ahead-rebecca-alber, asks you to know how the questions will be assessed before you plan your lessons. This seems to connect to the idea of "test format practice", where students and teachers are being exposed to similar kinds of questions so that they understand the format when they see it later. I know that a current concern with PARCC is that it is computer based, and has a lot of teachers at my school scrambling to provide more assessments online to get students more familiar with that testing mode. While the rest of the strategies are helpful in reducing testing anxiety - (direction words, test wise attitude and skills, and strategies for multiple choice questions) if we don't see the end game, it will be hard to get the students there. There are charter schools in New York who have been very competitive on their state tests (the regents), who performed poorly on PARCC. All of a sudden their highly proficient students were performing below average, all because their test prep and curriculum did not allow the students to be successful. Our school is taking a practice run at the PARCC this spring, and I believe they will be doing exactly what Linda described - analyze the results of the test to determine how NECAP, STAR, and our regular assessments align to and predict success on PARCC.
And Linda, I love engageny.org for math modules, the thinking behind those lessons both terrifies and inspires me in my teaching!
6. How might this article influence your teaching?
While reading Fisher and Frey’s text, specifically Chapter 9, I have had varied feelings on the usefulness of some of the suggestions presented. While some of the organizers and tools for assessment seem good “in theory,” I can’t always see myself actually wanting to use them in my classroom as I didn't find an authentic value in all. However, when I turned to page 166 and saw the Reading Survey, I couldn’t be more excited and wished that I had my own classroom full of students to survey.
At the beginning of every school year, I have given my students a questionnaire to complete in order to learn more about them and their interests; however, it was not as efficient in collecting the information that I was really seeking to know as well as this survey does. I think that this tool could be useful for a team of middle school teachers in planning enrichment activities throughout the school year, grouping students by interest for literature circles, calling on students to serve as researchers and then “expert” presenters on class topics, etc. In addition to inventories, I also liked the self-assessment ideas presented on page 165 and found the “Checklist for creating assessments” on page 172-173 a good reference tool since I would often create my own tests rather than utilize the pre-designed tests that would often accompany a textbook.
One item that I didn’t find too useful was the classroom observation form on page 163. It wasn’t clear to me exactly how this form was to be utilized. Is the teacher supposed to observe the student in another class or while cooperative learning is happening in one’s own classroom? Fisher and Frey stated, “Although the act of reflective teaching is defined by a recursive cycle of teaching, observing, and reflecting, it is not realistic to think that any teacher could (or even would want to) record every observation. However, a simple observation form like the one in Figure 9.3 can assist a busy teacher in documenting meaningful observation data.” Even with the form being only single sided, I can’t imagine filling out a form like that while actively teaching the class.
I think assessment in all forms as described in the text - both informal and formal - is almost an art in and of itself. As stated on page 178, it is important that educators choose the right “instrument” as the selection “should be driven by learning goals, linked to classroom instruction, and be systematic in administration and analysis.” I think this statement rings true with most educators, but it is an area that we struggle with as it is often difficult to choose and design meaningful assessments. Mandatory standardized testing often seems to boldly ignore this truth as it often is not the best instrument to capture what students really know and can do in the classroom and beyond. I think that the discussion on assessments must continue to be an ongoing one in order to best benefit our students.
Colleen - I noticed the same thing about the lack of focus on "formative" assessments. At first, I thought that "Types of Informal Assessments" on pg. 161 was going to cover it, but it really didn't say much.
ReplyDeleteSince this seems to be a very timely topic in our State - with quite a push in my school as well, I am wondering if maybe this focus is so "new" that this book is already behind-the-times in not giving a big long list of formative assessments.
Since this is a large segment on the evaluation for us, our school is realizing we all need more guidance and some training on how to effectively use formative assessments. We all have nice, long lists of the various types of formative assessments, but it would be good to actually have a bit of support with how to use them; which ones are really effective; and which ones are not helpful.
I'm with you, Colleen! We need a bit more info. on that topic.
Colleen, I agree with your concerns about PARCC. I wonder how I can prepare my students for an assessment that I do not know much about. Our curriculum is based on the Common Core Standards, but as teachers we have had many discussions about the standards and our interpretation of them. What if my interpretation and expectations for my students does not align with the test? I have used some of the examples from the PARCC website and have also used some of the items from Smarter Balance Consortium (the other company creating state tests based on the Common Core). My students have struggled with these test items. Later this spring I will be giving the field test to my students and I am hoping to gain a better understanding of what the assessment will be like.
ReplyDeleteThe text talks about integrating test strategies/questions into our teaching. I do teach test taking strategies, but without a true understanding of what these tests will look like it is hard to create sample problems. I am very concerned about what happens when we give these assessments to the students. If they are not as successful as they were on NECAP is it because they are not capable, because we have not instructed them properly, or because neither teachers nor students are truly prepared for this type of testing format? What impact will that have on the students and their own perceptions of their abilities? The suggestions in the text of how to help are students be successful make sense, but unfortunately are not truly feasible in our current state of testing. We don’t know what to expect, so how can we truly prepare our students for success?
I am finding myself getting frustrated with the talk of the new PARCC test. We are trying to decide whether or not to take it next year (We are a private school and have that option.) However, even though we have worked hard to align our curriculum to the Common Core, I am not sure if I have prepared my students adequately for the type of test questions. As I said previously, we spent time aligning our curriculum, but after teaching a module from EngageNY (http://www.engageny.org/) I see that I did not have a clear enough understanding of the type of thinking required. I don't think you should teach to the test, but you do need to know what the test is like in order to help student prepare for answering questions in the proper format. In this chapter, the authors stated, "High achieving schools focus on curriculum improvement rather than test prep". Thus I suppose I will continue to better understand the Common Core standards in order to improve my daily instruction. My gut feeling is that we should take the test and analyze the results to determine if we do have any gaps.(This assumes that PARCC is a valid test!)
ReplyDeletePARCC is definitely going to be a big change, and something that my school has already been stressed about. The book talks about informal assessments, and using observations, portfolios, rubrics, and inventories to see how the students are doing. In my opinion, these observations will not be helpful if you do not have a deep understanding of the end goal for the curriculum. Aligning to Common Core is one thing, but it is important to know the depth that each student will need to have on the standards.
DeleteBackwards planning, as briefly described in this blog, http://www.edutopia.org/blog/backwards-planning-thinking-ahead-rebecca-alber, asks you to know how the questions will be assessed before you plan your lessons. This seems to connect to the idea of "test format practice", where students and teachers are being exposed to similar kinds of questions so that they understand the format when they see it later. I know that a current concern with PARCC is that it is computer based, and has a lot of teachers at my school scrambling to provide more assessments online to get students more familiar with that testing mode. While the rest of the strategies are helpful in reducing testing anxiety - (direction words, test wise attitude and skills, and strategies for multiple choice questions) if we don't see the end game, it will be hard to get the students there. There are charter schools in New York who have been very competitive on their state tests (the regents), who performed poorly on PARCC. All of a sudden their highly proficient students were performing below average, all because their test prep and curriculum did not allow the students to be successful. Our school is taking a practice run at the PARCC this spring, and I believe they will be doing exactly what Linda described - analyze the results of the test to determine how NECAP, STAR, and our regular assessments align to and predict success on PARCC.
And Linda, I love engageny.org for math modules, the thinking behind those lessons both terrifies and inspires me in my teaching!
6. How might this article influence your teaching?
ReplyDeleteWhile reading Fisher and Frey’s text, specifically Chapter 9, I have had varied feelings on the usefulness of some of the suggestions presented. While some of the organizers and tools for assessment seem good “in theory,” I can’t always see myself actually wanting to use them in my classroom as I didn't find an authentic value in all. However, when I turned to page 166 and saw the Reading Survey, I couldn’t be more excited and wished that I had my own classroom full of students to survey.
At the beginning of every school year, I have given my students a questionnaire to complete in order to learn more about them and their interests; however, it was not as efficient in collecting the information that I was really seeking to know as well as this survey does. I think that this tool could be useful for a team of middle school teachers in planning enrichment activities throughout the school year, grouping students by interest for literature circles, calling on students to serve as researchers and then “expert” presenters on class topics, etc. In addition to inventories, I also liked the self-assessment ideas presented on page 165 and found the “Checklist for creating assessments” on page 172-173 a good reference tool since I would often create my own tests rather than utilize the pre-designed tests that would often accompany a textbook.
One item that I didn’t find too useful was the classroom observation form on page 163. It wasn’t clear to me exactly how this form was to be utilized. Is the teacher supposed to observe the student in another class or while cooperative learning is happening in one’s own classroom? Fisher and Frey stated, “Although the act of reflective teaching is defined by a recursive cycle of teaching, observing, and reflecting, it is not realistic to think that any teacher could (or even would want to) record every observation. However, a simple observation form like the one in Figure 9.3 can assist a busy teacher in documenting meaningful observation data.” Even with the form being only single sided, I can’t imagine filling out a form like that while actively teaching the class.
I think assessment in all forms as described in the text - both informal and formal - is almost an art in and of itself. As stated on page 178, it is important that educators choose the right “instrument” as the selection “should be driven by learning goals, linked to classroom instruction, and be systematic in administration and analysis.” I think this statement rings true with most educators, but it is an area that we struggle with as it is often difficult to choose and design meaningful assessments. Mandatory standardized testing often seems to boldly ignore this truth as it often is not the best instrument to capture what students really know and can do in the classroom and beyond. I think that the discussion on assessments must continue to be an ongoing one in order to best benefit our students.